Sentence frames are a scaffolding strategy used to give students a structured way to provide responses in conversations or in writing. Very often we hear students say, "I just don't know how to say it (or write it)." We have found that giving students a structure helps them focus on communicating their ideas without getting caught up the how of saying or writing something.
Here is a short video of a 5th grade teacher using sentence frames to jump start writing:
Here is a little book of Sentence Frames organized by function and by English language proficiency level. There are two books per copy, so share one with a friend!
Here is a link to a good article with language posters like the one below. The article also has ideas for classroom discussions, group discussions, pair work and managing talk in the classroom. Procedures for Classroom Talk
Language objective
What is it?
What does it sound like?
To instruct
Giving directions
"The first step is …" "Next …" "The last part is …"
To inquire
Asking questions
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? "What do you think?"
To test
Deciding if something makes sense
"I still have a question about …" "What I learned is …"
To describe
Telling about something
Use descriptive words and details
To compare and contrast
Showing how two things are alike and different
"Here is something they both have in common …" "These are different from each other because …"
To explain
Giving examples
"This is an example of …" "This is important because …"
To analyze
Discussing the parts of a bigger idea
"The parts of this include …" "We can make a diagram of this."
To hypothesize
Making a prediction based on what is known
"I can predict that …" "I believe that _ will happen because …" "What might happen if …?"
To deduce
Drawing a conclusion or arriving at an answer
"The answer is because …"
To evaluate
Judging something
"I agree with this because …" "I disagree because …" "I recommend that …" "A better solution would be …" "The factors that are most important are
Jeff Zweirs Presentation from WIDA Debut 2012 Boston Nov. 8 and 9 Academic Language in School Contexts
Sentence frames are a scaffolding strategy used to give students a structured way to provide responses in conversations or in writing. Very often we hear students say, "I just don't know how to say it (or write it)." We have found that giving students a structure helps them focus on communicating their ideas without getting caught up the how of saying or writing something.
Here is a short video of a 5th grade teacher using sentence frames to jump start writing:
Sentence Frames to Jump Start Writing
Here is a little book of Sentence Frames organized by function and by English language proficiency level. There are two books per copy, so share one with a friend!
Here is a link to a good article with language posters like the one below. The article also has ideas for classroom discussions, group discussions, pair work and managing talk in the classroom.
Procedures for Classroom Talk
"Next …"
"The last part is …"
"What do you think?"
"What I learned is …"
"These are different from each other because …"
"This is important because …"
"We can make a diagram of this."
"I believe that _ will happen because …"
"What might happen if …?"
"I disagree because …"
"I recommend that …"
"A better solution would be …"
"The factors that are most important are
Jeff Zweirs Presentation from WIDA Debut 2012 Boston Nov. 8 and 9
Academic Language in School Contexts